Shan Yu and The Crow
by pistonsfan75
Summary: Shan Yu's bird isn't just a companion, it's his source of life and infallibility. As long as the bird lives, Shan Yu will not die. Anyone who tries to kill it, dies moments later. Now Shan Yu is in the Imperial City and the emperor is in danger. A one-shot. T for war violence.


**A/N- I got the idea for this while watching Shan Yu's bird flying over the scene of the avalanche with Shan Yu emerging from the snow moments later. It reminded me of The Crow, so I imagined the Hun leader's bird making him invincible like Eric Draven's bird did him.**

As a leader of the Hun tribes, Shan Yu was a fierce warlord. He led his army into countless victories against surrounding countries and seemed to unexplainably cheat death numerous times.

His father had once led an enormous army over the Great Wall, but hundreds of his soldiers had been slaughtered by the Imperial Army. The Chinese military had been led by the brilliant general Fa Zhou, and they had defeated the Hun invasion.

Fa Zhou had been severely injured and retired, but his daughter Mulan had joined the army in his place, posing as his son. She possessed the same courage and determination as her father.

Now, 20 years later, Shan Yu was preparing to lead another invasion of the Great Wall. He was determined that this time the Huns would not fail. There was a legend that Shan Yu's crow, Bagatur, was possessed by the spirit of his fallen father and was the source of his infallibility. As long as the crow lived, he would always recover from whatever injuries were inflicted on him. Many attempts to eliminate the crow had failed, and all who tried had met with brutal deaths, often within minutes. After the Huns had once again breached the Great Wall, the emperor had promised untold riches and honor to the warrior who could kill Bagatur.

Shan Yu's army led a trail of terror through the Middle Kingdom as they plowed their way to the Imperial City. Every village in their path was destroyed, leaving no survivors. As they had made their way to the mountains, Bagatur had brought Shan Yu a tiny doll from a mountain village. On it had been white horse hair from Imperial stallions and the smell of sulfur from cannons. From that, Shan Yu and his main soldiers had figured out that the Imperial Army was waiting for them in the mountains.

Hun scouts had discovered where they were camped out, and the army had stealthily surrounded the valley they were in. Four thousand Hun warriors fired flaming arrows at once at the army camp, and were able to defeat the entire force. Five thousand Imperial soldiers lay dead, along with Shang's father, General Li. The village next to the valley was also completely laid to waste.

Fa Mulan was training with other new recruits at the military camp at Wu Zhong under the name Fa Ping. Everyone believed her to be a man. After faltering for the first several weeks of training, she had begun to excel at everything she did. Her commanding officer was Captain Li Shang.

After receiving a message instructing him to lead his regiment to the Tung Shou Pass to assist the main troops in fighting the Huns, Captain Li had taken his army of 100 soldiers into the mountains. It was there that they discovered the fallen Imperial Army. The next day, they were ambushed by the Hun forces.

After crossing into the Pass, they had been assailed by a barrage of flaming arrows. Then the Hun army emerged at the top of a mountain. The 100 soldiers and their Captain were outnumbered 40 to 1, but they were the emperor's last hope so they were determined to fight for China or die trying.

As the 4,000 warriors had charged the army remnant, Captain Li had told the soldier holding the last cannon to aim at Shan Yu. But before the menacing giant had come within firing distance, Mulan had knocked him over and grabbed the cannon. She charged toward the advancing Huns, and as Shan Yu was getting closer, she fired the cannon at a nearby mountain cliff. It exploded at the top and triggered an avalanche, burying the entire Hun army. Unfortunately, most of her comrades were also lost in the deluge. Only 20 of them, including herself and Captain Li, managed to survive.

But after the Pass was still again, the soldiers spied Bagatur flying over the snowy graveyard where the Huns had fallen. They knew this meant that Shan Yu was alive, or would come back to life and emerge from the snow. Under an outcropping of rock, they took shifts watching for any signs of movement.

That night, their suspicions were confirmed when they once again saw Bagatur fly over the battlefield and watched their nemesis emerge from his snowy grave. Six other Hun warriors climbed up out of the snow and began walking with Shan Yu towards the Imperial City.

Captain Li and his men followed from a distance. As they walked, they conspired in whispers how to eliminate Bagatur. They all knew the risks. Every person who had ever tried to kill him had died. But as long as he remained alive, Shan Yu could never be defeated. As long as Shan Yu was alive, the emperor was in danger. It was up to them to eliminate both.

Some of the ideas they passed back and forth included firing flaming arrows or fireworks at it or poisoning it. It was decided that they would try the first two ideas.

As they prepared to descend the last mountain closest to the Imperial City, the regiment spotted Shan Yu and Bagatur. While the rest hid out of sight, one imperial soldier got into position and fired several flaming arrows at Bagatur. He managed to hit two of the Hun soldiers, but Bagatur flew away. Within minutes, he lost his footing on the rocks and fell to his death.

Another soldier spotted Bagatur flying toward them and attempted to hit him with several rocks he launched into the air using his bow as a slingshot. The last rock he fired bounced off the bow and hit him square between the eyes. He also died.

After losing two soldiers, the regiment knew that most of them would die in their quest to defeat the monstrous Hun leader and his powerful bird. But protecting their emperor and country was worth more to them than their own lives.

They continued to follow the Huns through the city, stopping to buy fireworks and black powder. Shang knew a shortcut to the palace, so they all snuck through and were able to get to the emperor before the Huns did. Shang and 9 soldiers escorted the emperor to a safe part of the palace and 9 more, including Ping, climbed on the palace roof to get a vantage point of the city.

As Shan Yu came into view, a soldier lit a firework and threw it at Bagatur. It hit one of the Hun soldiers, but the bird flew away from it. Another tied a firework rocket to an arrow, lit it and launched it at the bird. This one actually hit Shan Yu and the bird, but neither sustained mortal wounds. He quickly reloaded and shot another rocket at them. This one, once again, hit both Shan Yu and Bagatur, but again not with mortal wounds. Both Imperial soldiers were hit and killed by Hun arrows almost immediately. Another soldier shot a flaming arrow at the crow, but he slid off the roof to his death. There was six soldiers left on the roof and 9 were guarding the emperor. That was all that remained of the Imperial forces.

Seeing an opportunity to take out both enemies and spare the lives of her remaining comrades, Mulan threw a bag of black powder at Shan Yu, then grabbed two firework rockets, lit them and jumped off the roof grabbing a rope holding lanterns. She let go just over where Shan Yu laid on the ground and landed on both enemies just as both rockets exploded. The bag of black powder, which had initially invited mocking from the Huns, intensified the rockets' explosions.

Not only was she instantly killed, but so were Shan Yu and Bagatur.

With their leader gone, the remaining soldiers took out the other Huns. Then they brought the emperor back out to the palace entrance so he could see the remains of the Huns with his own eyes. The invincible Shan Yu and the powerful Bagatur had finally fallen.

Captain Li explained how Ping had caused the avalanche that eliminated the majority of the Huns, then had thrown the black powder and jumped to her death with two lit firework rockets, finally destroying the indestructible.

All through the training and fighting, no one had ever discovered the truth about her. Every soldier who had made an attempt to kill Bagatur, knowing it would bring about their own death, was honored. But the greatest honor went to Fa Ping. Captain Li delivered Shan Yu's sword and the crest of the emperor to the Fa family and paid his respects to Ping in the family temple.

Fa Ping's heroism went down in history as a legend and no one but her family ever knew their greatest hero was a woman named Fa Mulan.


End file.
